House to Vote on If Women Should Be Required to Register for Draft

PARRIS ISLAND, SC - JUNE 23: Female Marine Corps recruit Kylieanne Fortin, 20, of Williamsport, Maryland goes through close combat training at the United States Marine Corps recruit depot June 23, 2004 in Parris Island, South Carolina. Marine Corps boot camp, with its combination of strict discipline and exhaustive physical training, is considered the most rigorous of the armed forces recruit training. Congress is currently considering bills that could increase the size of the Marine Corps and the Army to help meet US military demands in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The terms of a new bill would require American women to register for the military draft.

On April 27, the United State House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee voted to back an amendment that would require women to register with the Selective Service Systems within 30 days of turning 18 years of age, as all men must currently do.

America has not had a military draft since the Vietnam War. It does not seem likely that one would be instituted any time soon.

Former marine and current Republican Representative Duncan Hunter offered the amendment regarding women to the Armed Services Committee in order to instigate a dialogue about the Pentagon’s December 2015 decision.

This past holiday season Defense Secretary Ash Carter rescinded all gender restrictions on military service, opening all of the military’s combat roles to women.

Another Representative of California, democrat Jackie Speier supported the policy change: “I actually think if we want equality in this country, if we want women to be treated precisely like men are treated and that they should not be discriminated against, we should be willing to support a universal conscription.”

The role of women in the military has been a contentious issue in the contemporary United States since late last century. In 1981, the Supreme Court ruled that women did not have to register for the draft because combat jobs were closed to them.

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